Welcome back to Bison Chat. Not on Tuesday night.
We moved it to Thursday. We got to spread the content out
a little bit. We got a lot going on this week
and next week. As Indiana gets ready for their
first ever College Football Playoff appearance, I'm Galen
Clavio. That's Joe Cronin.
We got Emily Fox behind the scenes pressing the buttons and
making the magic happen and we got all you folks out in the
audience. Whether you're watching us live
on YouTube on the back Home Network channel or whether you
are watching or listening to us afterwards, we bid you a hello
and a thank you. And we're looking forward to
chatting with you about IU football and some other things
throughout the course of however long we go here, whether it's 30
minutes or 45 or what have you. Justin Beard, good evening.
Great, good to see you Joe, good to see you as well.
How is they don't call it dead week anymore?
It's it's what is it care week or free week or something like
that. But how is how is your week
before finals going? That's the question.
Well the good thing is I don't have any finals next week.
I had my exam in sociology yesterday.
I got a couple projects that are due on Monday, but they're
projects like I've been working on them.
They're already pretty much done.
It's just kind of like click the submit button right last
possible second to act like I've been working on it up until the
last possible second. It's been it's been going well.
I mean, got some Buffaloes trivia that I'll be heading to
after the show. Catch a squad or team name is
the pan handlers and not because of panhandling for gold because
the Panhandle of Oklahoma. It's a long winded store.
I won't get into it right now, but we really like the Panhandle
of Oklahoma for some reason. I don't know.
How's your week? Have you been to the Panhandle
of Oklahoma? No, it we're playing, you know,
Sporkle quizzes. Yes, I do.
Yeah, we're doing it was the US map and you got to like click on
the state, but it it's no borders and our goal was and
every time we get Oklahoma, we try to click on just the
Panhandle, not the main part. And it stuck and we really, I
don't know it's. It's.
Yeah. I've learned about all kinds of
fascinating nicknames for teams and people this week that I
didn't know of, not which I won't reveal here.
I don't want to embarrass anybody, but no, it's good to
see you and looking forward to chatting.
Here is we got a lot to talk about.
Even though it's an off week technically, a lot of sound from
IU in the press conferences, a lot of prep.
We're going to talk about the Notre Dame match up.
We're also going to talk about a really exciting thing that
happened on X yesterday that has gotten not everybody, not just
everybody abuzz, but I've gotten a lot of messages personally
about it. So we're going to talk about
that a little bit later. But first, before all of that, I
got a couple of special announcements for those of you
who are going to be in Bloomington this upcoming week,
Bison Chat and and the larger Crimson Cast Collective.
I would say we're going to be live at the Upstairs pub Tuesday
night of this upcoming week from 8:00 to 9:00 PM, right in the
middle of $2.00 Tuesday. So it should be a a pretty
fascinating set up. But we're going to be there
previewing the IU Notre Dame game.
We're going to be talking about the different matchups and
things that IU is going to be facing in that contest.
What do they need to do to win? What do they need to do in terms
of trying to stop Notre Dame? So if you're in the vicinity, if
you haven't been to the upstairs pub yet, you need to get over
there. If you've been, you know why
you're going. It's not just to see us, it's to
see the amazing new establishment that they've built
over on the Jungle Room side, as I always call it.
It was. Other people call it something
different, but it's worth going to.
It'll be a great night. We would love to see you there
and we are certainly appreciative of our partners at
the Upstairs Pub, DJ Unique and the whole crew over there.
Really great to work with. We were over there, Joe, if
you'll recall the Friday before game day, and that was a lot of
fun. We had a lot of people out that
were there specifically to watch the show.
We would love to get even more people out and I promise we'll
be inside this time as it's going to be pretty chilly I
think on Tuesday night of next week.
But the Upstairs Pub, 8:00 to 9:00 on Tuesday of next week.
Please join us. Are you excited, Joe?
Oh, absolutely, it was a lot of fun as before that Washington
game, the the vibes were high then.
I mean, I imagine this one it is there's an excitement and I I
think with that first time when we did it, it was that was when
all the pieces were coming together is like Indiana
football is legit. This thing is for real this this
season that they're having is it's tremendous.
And now it's, you know, full circle moment previewing a
College Football Playoff game. It's like, wow, it's it's here
and that's exciting. And a big thanks again to
upstairs. I mean, that's a great, great
spot to have it. Great environment and Plano
$2.00 Tuesday. What better day?
Yeah, it's it's it's it's going to be a great time.
So hopefully you all can join us while we're there.
Also, there'll be additional Crimson cast on the ground
access, I guess, or, or events. Access sounds weird, certainly,
but Thursday night up in South Bend, there'll be an IU Alumni
Association event at Corby's Irish Pub that's going to run, I
think 5:30 to 8:00 or 5:30 to 8:30.
I'll be getting there at 7 along with some special guests that
some of you I think would enjoy meeting in person.
But join us there for that in concert with the IU Alumni
Association. That's the smaller of the events
that's going to be going on this week.
And we're looking forward to to partnering with IUAA again on
that. And then just finalized this
today, but Saturday at noon, come to Social Cantina in
Mishawaka, which is of course right next door to South Bend as
we'll be doing a meet and greet and an IU fan rally there.
That'll go. I think we'll be there probably
12 to two. That event's going to go 12:00
to 4:00. And it's a nice lead in to
College Game Day, which starts at 3:30 that day.
And we'll also be a nice lead in to the IU Alumni Association
event. I think it's happening at some
point later on that day. So again, so.
Busy week. Oh, man, I I got, I got a full
slate. I mean, we're, you know, we're
in the College Football Playoff every year.
So maybe I can back off a little bit.
But you know, I felt like, yeah, I'm kidding.
We we needed to take advantage of the opportunity.
So hopefully we see you at one of those events, if not all of
them folks. So just check the the the
Crimson cast X page or Twitter page if you're a normal person,
and we'll try to get you more information as it comes about.
Social Cantina should have a big announcement coming up on Sunday
with more details, but I wanted to give our Crimson Cast
listeners and viewers a heads up that we would be there.
So anyway, let's go ahead and dive into the main part of the
program. This was an interesting week
from a media availability perspective.
A lot more media availability this week than normal Joe, as
we've heard from a bunch of different players.
We've heard from Kurt Signetti before we get to the game some
some news that I think is sad in one way, but is is happy in
another way. Indiana, it was announced over
the weekend is going to be losing the quarterbacks coach on
this team, Tino Sinceri, who's also the Co offensive
coordinator, going to become the offensive coordinator at UCLA.
He replaces Eric B Enemy, who certainly struggled a bit this
year over there, but a great opportunity for Tino Sinceri
stepping into a, a full full, a full fat, a 100% offensive
coordinator role. And I think it's important, Joe,
to understand like a sincerely, really highly regarded as a
recruiter, as a guy who is a quarterback whisperer to some
degree. But you know, also I sometimes
see from people like, oh, this is a disaster for IU, whatever.
IU was able to lock up their other 9 assistants to extensions
on their contracts. And as we know, and then we
heard from Kurt Zignetti. We'll listen to this clip first,
Joe, and then I'll get your thoughts.
Like this is what you're supposed to do.
You, you hire great assistants, they become really successful.
They go somewhere else. Here's what Kurt Zignetti had to
say about all that. But you know, the philosophy has
always been when you lose a coach, hire a better one.
And we had a lot of players a year quarterback before we hired
Tino. So while he's done a great job,
you know we won't miss a step. Certainly you can't knock the
the Kurt Signetti Quarterback Car Wash experience as they
really have had say, you know, a parade of overachieving
quarterbacks given what they've done previously.
But you got to look back at what Tina Sinceri did this year,
specifically with Curtis Rourke, who was a good quarterback.
But to achieve what Rourke achieved this year, you know,
sincerely, you can see why he was a hot commodity on the
coaching market. Absolutely.
I mean, work went from one of the better players in Mac play
to one of the best quarterbacks in the country, probably top
seven in some regards, whatever your ranking might be.
I would say he's consistently within a top 7 and that's a high
echelon of quarterbacks, especially one of the few that's
in the College Football Playoffs.
With Tino leaving, yes, while it's sad, while it's an
important part of the staff, it's much better that he's
getting a job as compared to a Bryant Haynes or a Mike
Shanahan. Those are two very important
guys. And the fact that they were
locked in, I mean all the way down to the strength coach,
Derek Owings walked in through up to the to the two main
coordinators. That's huge.
So it was bound to happen. There was going to be some type
of coaching turnover within the in the assistance of this
program because of the success they were having and and Signeti
even before that said he has a great relationship with coach
Tino and his family and stuff like that, and it's really a
good opportunity. That's what you do when you're a
young coach like that is you work your way up and now he has
a great gig as the full time offensive quarter out in UCLAI
do want to add, though, the fall off of Eric Bienemy from
offensive coordinator of a Super Bowl champion team to can't even
scratch out a gig and at the college level.
It's that was kind of surprising to say that like just the way
his tenure went from when he went over to the commanders and
then took the UCLA giant. It's been it's been tough
sledding for him to say the least.
But with coach Tina leaving, yes, it will be missed.
It it I'm interested to see like what's the next what's the next
step? Who's the next guy and does it?
What's the effect? Because now the quarterback
search, obviously the playoffs are about to happen, but you
know, the portal is also open at the same time, which that's a
whole nother debacle, is whether or not the portal should be open
while the playoffs are still happening.
Because that's something that Coach Signetti has talked about
a bunch, is he still has to double down on this recruiting
process, the portal process, all while preparing for Indiana's
biggest game in the history of Indiana football.
Yeah, I mean, first of all, the enemy thing, it turns out
Patrick Mahomes is really good. That's that's that's probably
the the biggest piece of commentary I could give you
there. Also, Andy Reid, it turns out
really good at football. But no, look, I mean, when you
look at at Senseri and, you know, just a kind of a rising
star in the profession right now.
And and just this is where Kurt Signeti and the staff, you're
really fascinated to see what they do and, and how they decide
to go. But the frankly, the track
records there and and I think as, as Signetti noted, like you
go hire a better assistant after you lose a good one.
And that doesn't have to be a negative on Sinceri because he
clearly did a great job. But this is what good programs
do. And you look across the the
entire spectrum of college football, this happens all the
time. Indiana's not really used to it.
Normally if a coordinator's leaving, it's because they were
fired, you know, But like, you think about Kaylyn de Boer.
Like Kaylyn de Boer was great for one year and then went and
coached Fresno State and now he's coaching Alabama for at
least another few minutes. And you know, it's one of those
things where it's growth, it's a positive.
And and certainly there is a a reality where you need to go out
and hire someone. And I'm really fascinated where
they go with this. Like where who do they decide to
hire? Do they go, you know, they've
got they're got the pick of the litter?
Because it's going to be a really attractive program with
the NIL commitment and everything else to come and
coach in, because you're going to have a chance to work with a
really good quarterback every year while you're at IU.
Absolutely, and considering the staff, their track record, like
you mentioned, they they have had success through the ranks.
And I mean, it's been the talk when you know, I'd I'd say once
this team got to six and O that's kind of what we've talked
about every week is how they just implemented what they've
done, especially Signetti, what he has done at the FCSD 2 levels
even then, and just brought it into the biggest possible stage
of college football in the Big 10.
So it's been really impressive. And like it's going to be a hot
market for for young guys who want to get into the coaching
gig, especially that's an important role being the
quarterback's coach and helping command the offense like that.
So you know that that would be definitely interesting to watch.
A tough loss again, but you know he's with the team through this
playoff. That's huge, I mean.
It's it's not like he's just bailing and getting ready to
hang out with UCLA like he's committed.
He's committed, You know what he's committed to, Joe.
He's committed to the main thing.
Let's hear Kurt Sigmeti talking a little bit about how important
the main thing actually is this week and next.
Well, I'm I'm not really concerned about rat poison right
now. Keeping the main thing.
The main thing is the main thing.
No one is satisfied. No one's satisfied.
The players are hungry for more. The coaches are hungry for more.
I don't think anything is I? Well, he, he, he is a joy.
As a quote machine. I don't think anything though.
Joe gives me more joy than watching Emily Fox mouthing the
words that Cinetti is saying and throwing little hand gestures in
in the background on the on our monitor.
That was tremendous content. I wish the the viewers could
have seen that that's. Because Elsie's watched it more
than once and and had some time to rehearse that, probably in
the mirror. But you know, this is what this
is what you love. And it's one of those it's such
a stark contrast. I think from like the way that
Tom Allen would talk about his teams going into games and the
way that signetti and, and kind of that aura that he's, that he
brings off in the quotes, as you mentioned, it's, it really feels
very professional. This constant emphasis.
We're not satisfied, the team's not satisfied.
After a while, that becomes a mantra and and that's something
that you just start to intrinsically believe.
There's a lot of very core leadership approach aspects to
the way Signeti goes about this. And you know, even the rat
poison thing, which is a Nick Saban phrase, the, the stuff
that seeps in to teams that are successful and detracts them
from the things that got them successful in the 1st place.
But with this, you know, right from the beginning, even the
idea, and I love this, we and we played this clip last week that
the team didn't meet to watch the College Football Playoff
draw. They were home in their
apartments like they expected to be there.
That was the line that Signetti had.
And that that to me, I don't know if it'll ultimately matter,
but I do think that it is great to see a coach that is
instilling that level of like, not just it's confidence, but
it's also there's a focus that's required if you're going to go
along that way. It doesn't necessarily mean it's
going to translate into victory, but it does mean that this team
really seems to be locked in in a lot of ways to feeling like
they're not done. Like this isn't the this isn't
the pinnacle. Like there's more to the
mountain, even beyond this upcoming game.
That was interesting and honestly I disagree a little bit
because I I kind of wish they did embrace it as a team because
I feel like while yes, having this never satisfied mentality
is really the only way to succeed, especially in this
world of college football where the top dogs are the top dogs
and tend to stay that way. The the thing about being able
to celebrate the moments that you're in and being able to move
forward. And I think obviously it's such
a small thing. It was a 30 minute show, but
it's just kind of that teammanship being together.
And you know, in my opinion, I would have liked to see them all
together. I think it just, you know, shows
the camaraderie of a team, shows what they've been through
especially I mean, how many of these guys that were at the
Sunbelt Conference last year or other conferences, Mac
conference, like they're all over the place.
So that's my $0.02 on it. I still think that the focus is
there. Clearly.
It was just interesting to see like, I mean, you see, like, you
know, Texas had their whole gathering, Clemson, all these
teams together, Alabama, what they're really pissed off
gathering. I don't know if they had one,
but it it. It was really interesting 'cause
it, it just, there's a, just a fundamental mindset for that's
that I think is a, it's, it's curious to watch because it is
so different from what we've seen as we move forward.
And and again, it's not to say that the the gatherings that
other schools had or wrong or or bad in some way, but it is
interesting to see Indiana doing that.
Yeah, go. Ahead, you brought up with Tom
Allen. I don't want to I don't want to
RIP into him. But it was last year after the
Penn State loss. I'll I'll start with that Penn
State loss is press conference on Monday.
The the Monday availability. He was happy and like ecstatic,
almost like the most happy had been all season because he felt
like they were close to this. Yeah, I think they were, but it
wasn't a great record at the time.
There were like three and two and six, something like that.
I'm not sure because it was right before the Wisconsin game.
He was very excited, like something was trending in the
right direction after a loss. And then I just the comparison
of of that, I don't remember exactly what he said, but the
comparison of that to what Signetti has been preaching all
year long. It's kind of wild to see.
It's a complete 180 and you can tell.
I mean, the program is on a complete 180.
It is. And it's, it's still hard to get
your head wrapped around all that, but it's, it's an
interesting point. And, and a lot of the sometimes
the press conferences or the comments from coaches, you can
kind of shrug off, they don't matter that much.
But a lot of it's tone and I think especially this year for
IU under Signetti, establishing tone and establishing
emotionality in a controlled way is important.
And it is certainly very different from what we've seen
before. Keeping those emotions in check,
but taking time to reflect on them.
Like it's been a little bit different for everybody.
So let's hear from, you know, from some of the IU folks,
including Signetti, about what exactly that process has been
like so far this week. I've never thought like I'll be
in this position, but I'm, I knew I always worked hard my
entire life. And you know, that was always a
goal, you know, get in in a position like this.
And I'm following him and I want to make the best of it.
I. Really.
Still haven't had a chance to reflect and let it all sink in.
I did walk outside my office this afternoon for about 30
seconds and looked around the stadium between interviews and
it kind of hit me. And I was like, wow, we've
accomplished a lot in 12 months, CJ.
West and and Kurt Zignetti talking about it here.
It's really that's, it's one of those things.
And it's like you, you get caught up in the preparation, in
the not being satisfied. And I think those things are
important. And it's like, how do you
reconcile something so spectacular and unexpected?
And particularly for a player like CJ W, who like legitimately
has been trying his whole career to to do something like this
that. I his his career is interesting.
Four years at Kent State, he was one in 11 last year.
And I and he was just like, yeah, I mean, this kind of the
vision, this is what was thought.
And like Miles Price too, we got to talk to him.
That was a five and seven Texas Tech team he was on.
And he he told us he was he was saying when he first committed
in January to IU that he's telling his families like this
has the makings of something special.
And when he he kind of walked us through the moment that he saw
IU officially in the playoffs and he's like, it is full
circle. He calls his family and he's
like, I told you in a in a sense, like this is happening.
And it was just wild that this confidence has been trickled
from the top down to guys that, you know, weren't even at
winning programs before coming coming to IU along with the the
Signetti change. It's it's been.
One of the most remarkable things about all of this, and
it's really it's where you know, I know a lot of people have been
watching the portal, they've been watching the players
Indiana has been theoretically involved in.
People have been getting nervous 'cause they're seeing guys sign
elsewhere and. And look, there's clearly a need
to upgrade like the physical talent levels at certain
positions for IU, but. I keep going back to this notion
that Indiana, they're, they've done all of this with players
like CJ W who were at Cast State or with Miles Price or with
people who were at Wake Forest or, or or North Carolina.
Like it's, it's not to say that you're going to be able to catch
the same lightning in in the same bottle moving forward, but
it is really cool watching that group of players having
accomplished everything they've accomplished so far and
realizing there's still additional steps.
And that's the kind of thing you can show potential portal
players or recruits and say, well, look at what you can
accomplish if you come together collectively.
This is very it's getting a little sappy, Joe, but that's
kind of that's really the the take home point with a lot of
this. And I think it's it's cool that
even Signetti was willing to tip his cap a little bit and say,
well, I haven't had a whole lot of time to reflect on it, but it
is amazing watching everything that's transpired with the
crowds, with the support. We've heard Signetti talk about
this when he's been asked about like signing up, you know, and,
and extending his deal, how touched he's been at how IU as a
school and as a fan base has come together around this
football team. It's so.
Interesting because of the way that they recruited these guys
to the portal. I I think with this portal
rotation, any you know, mid level player at, you know, these
group of five schools that if they are interested in the
portal, that has to be this bright light going off like the
miles Price had a little over like 500 yards last season at
Texas Tech. I think his career high was like
a little over 700. I mean, he's more of a utility
guy. He's going to do some jet suite
stuff like that. And while no, he's not putting
up career numbers, he is a big time threat in the receiving
game and the running game and the return game.
A a very important piece to the offense and the special teams.
His honorable mention for all big 10 special teams this season
and also put together some great performances through the air on
the ground was able to generate some great runs.
So it it's just moments like that you just see players like
Miles Price, CJ West, all of the JMU guys really.
And it has to be this sign alert.
I don't know what the correct word is to if there's if there's
a hot destination for a player who's in the Mac, the Mountain
West Conference, something like that to join a new team to to
take a step up. Indiana has to be one of the
hotter markets because of the product that they're putting out
with the players that they have and.
It's going to be more important to make the right choices as a
team with those types of players.
I mean, as I'm sure everybody's seen, North Carolina just hired
Bill Belichick, that is. Crazy that.
That that's that deserves its own, they went.
They went from a 74 year old coach to a 73 year old.
What are they doing? Yeah.
There's a lot of. I got a lot.
I get he's a brilliant football mind, but what it's?
You know, there's a lot of questions, it's fine.
But they, the, my point is they're also throwing a ton of
NIL money into the mix. And you're seeing more and more
schools making that decision and, and realizing they have to.
And so this is where it's like it's the, you have to have the
resources, but it's also how smart are you with the
allocation of those resources? And that has been, I think the
most impressive thing about what Indiana did.
And there was a report, I don't know if anybody saw this, but
there there was a company that did a, a report or an analysis
of the NIL money that the various collectives had raised
across college sports. And I think this was Adam
Brenneman that tweeted this. And you know, you, you look at
the public universities, which is really the only place you can
get the info and it looks like, you know, it's the normal group
of teams at the top. Texas with 22 million, Ohio
State with 20, LSU with 20, Georgia with 18, Texas A&M,
Michigan, Alabama, Florida, Clemson, Oklahoma, Penn State,
Indiana, Joe Indiana next. And then Michigan State, you
know, like Indiana head of Wisconsin, Indiana ahead of of
several other schools in that mixed Florida State.
They're head of Florida State. That to me is, you know, it's
like you're you're in, you're playing with the big boys at
this point. Yeah, I think it's a really
fascinating thing, but it really is.
How smart are you with the process of the money that you've
got, how you apply it, who you choose to bring on your team and
those sort sort of things, I mean?
I think we'll have a lot of discourse with with next season
once this one eventually wraps up.
But it's it's hard not to think about like the the what if
scenario because of all of the JMU guys and the Curtis Rourke's
that will have to graduate, move on.
And especially with the offensive line, some of those
key pieces that are graduating and possibly getting drafted,
stuff like that. So with the portal and stuff and
allocating the the proper amount of money, I will say I think IU
is more susceptible to not hand some five star transfer
$5,000,000. They would rather go get 4 guys
for that amount of money. And that's seems like the path
that I think Signetti would rather you because I think he
sees the value in it better. And I mean, this coaching staff
is great. I, I tip of the cap to up and
down the the staff, they are doing a tremendous job.
It's one of the best coaching Staffs in the country and
they're proving it. If the proof isn't in the
pudding, I don't know what is in the pudding.
Bananas. I don't know.
I I never want to think about what goes into pudding, quite
frankly. But you know what, what I do
want to think about is the game, the upcoming game.
So let's pivot talk about that a little bit.
Indiana, Notre Dame. And you know, this is, this is a
really fascinating game in a lot of ways.
And it's a game that has intrigued pundits, not
everybody, you know, a lot of people are just, they're,
they're going with the, the betting lines.
They're like Notre Dame's gonna win.
But I've seen several people look at this game and say, I
think Indiana's going to win or I think Indiana's going to be
really competitive. You know, we've got some B roll
here. We can roll as we talk about
this. It's it's pretty fascinating
from the perspective of, you know, what to think about in
terms of Indiana versus Notre Dame and how many people have
approached this from the perspective of, well, Notre Dame
is clearly just going to win the game because they're the
superior team because they've blown a bunch of teams out and
they're higher ranked. I don't think it's quite that
simple, Joe, having looked at the numbers and looked at the
relative strengths of these two teams, I, I.
Think like looking at stats is one thing, because you can kind
of stack up these two teams fairly similar.
Obviously there's some glaring differences, right?
I think Curtis Rourke has a better arm than Riley Leonard,
but Riley Leonard obviously is a better runner than Curtis Rourke
has. He had 700 yards on the ground
this year. That's a threat in and of
itself. But the running back tandem of
Justice Ellis and Tyson Lawton might be slightly better.
But I think the running back one for Notre Dame, Jeremiah Love is
very good. But receiving core, I think IU
has the the one up right there. Defense.
Both stack up pretty close. I think IU had four more sacks
on the season than Notre Dame did.
Something like that. I think IU might have more of
the star power on the defense 'cause they have a Michael
Camaro, they have a DeAngelo Pons, but it's a Notre Dame
defense. Marcus Freeman is a great coach
too. He is what he's done been able
to do since Brian Kelly gave him the the bird.
He's he's done a very solid job outside of a couple bad losses.
That's that's what and that's what he's been remembered as so
far. Well in his in his biggest game
that he's ever had to coach, he put 10 men on the field on
defense on back-to-back place against Ohio State last season.
The he Marcus Freeman, this is big for Notre Dame.
It's big for Marcus Freeman because a game like this is the
chance to show that they are in this, you know, top 8 and yes,
like this comment. I, I, I don't think Freeman is
overlooking this game at all. I don't think the players are
overlooking this game at all. I of the 12 teams, I don't think
any of these teams, they know what is at stake.
Penn State might be just because of all the outside noise saying
that they have an easy path, but I, I think this is gonna, it's
gonna be a good game. I will say it's gonna be low
scoring cause throwing the ball's gonna be tough.
It's gonna be what, 20° and snowy?
I don't. Well, we'll get back to the
weather forecast in a minute. I don't know if I agree with
your analysis there, Joe, but hey, you know, reasonable minds
also. Notre Dame is a run heavy team
that the 10th best rushing offense.
They are by the numbers, but. They are also score a ton of
points through that, but and Indiana has scored a ton of
points too and and that's where it's going to be interesting.
We'll get to the statistical breakdown in a minute.
I I screwed up. I just want to note to the
audience, I as the host did not do my job and listen to my
producer. We don't have B roll of Indiana
Notre Dame, but we do have sound with highlights.
So let's go ahead and go to that highlight now as we hear some
talk about Notre Dame in Indiana.
You. Know.
I saw enough of them against Purdue to know that they're an
excellent football team, and when you look at their scores,
they haven't played in very many close games.
They're a. Physical team, they do a lot of
stunts with their D lineman in front.
So we just got to, you know, prepare for that all one has to
prepare for that as well as us 2 during pass protection.
But yeah, they're they're physical team and you know,
they've always been a physical team.
We see a lot of pocket passers. We've seen those mobile guys as
well. So it's just got taken into
account. We got to be ready for, you
know, option plays, design, quarterback run, just stuff like
that. Just making sure we're not, you
know, falling asleep if he pulls the ball, I think.
It's a great game for the state in general, for Indiana and
Notre Dame to be playing in College Football Playoff.
I think the series began in 1898 and Notre Dame has pretty much
had the upper hand. I don't know the series records,
but regardless of who we play, you know, this is the play offs.
You win or go home, you know, and wearing it to win it.
I mean, that pretty much says it all.
It's it. Yeah, it is funny because it is.
It is both great for the state of Indiana and also I feel weird
saying that because Notre Dame is basically been like the
football franchise at the college level in the state of
Indiana and frankly even at the professional level for many
decades. Like it really for those of us
who grew up in Indiana and were born in the 20th century, which
is is not you, Joe. The, you know, the Colts didn't
really become relevant until three or four years into Peyton
Manning being a Colt. And that was really 2001, 2002.
They, they go on that run where, you know, it was the Patriots a
couple times they win the Super Bowl.
They should have won another Super Bowl.
Peyton Manning did so much to establish the Colts and
professional football in the state, but Notre Dame was always
not just the gold standard, but kind of the only football
program that people consistently looked at out of the state of
Indiana as as worth following on a regular basis.
Purdue, you know, might have an argument a season or two, but
generally speaking, they were always in that second tier and
Indiana was in the 3rd or 4th tier.
It is a fascinating match up to watch Indiana having this
incredible season matching up against Notre Dame, who is still
kind of an anachronism in college football.
They're not in a conference. They can't be a first round buy
because of that. They've had by Notre Dame
standards, a really good year and they have not been at the
top of what you know what they were in the in the 50s, sixties,
seventies, 80s, like that period.
But you know, they went to a a a national title game.
They lost to Alabama by by a huge margin was about a decade
ago, 2013. Yeah.
So, so final it. Was the last BCS Championship?
That's right. But it is cool watching these
two programs which have really not had much history.
I mean, one of the clips there was Indiana playing at Notre
Dame in 1991. I remember watching that game
with my dad, you know, on television.
We were all excited because Indiana never played Notre Dame.
And then we didn't play again until now.
Like, this will be the next game in that series.
They are going to be playing a series starting in 20-30.
That will be fun to see. But you know, for Indiana, it's
almost like, you know, they've they've been invited to a party
that Notre Dame's been to every year or you know, at least has
been invited to every year and Indiana's never been invited.
That to me is probably the coolest non football aspect of
all of this is just like it is, it is kind of new money versus
very old money in a game that has never really been played
before. And the spotlight is on it with
college game day there. That is a cool dynamic to see.
I'm really proud of the scheduling making this the the
first game. I think it is perfect having it
because it is the only in state battle in the playoffs.
There are only two states that have two schools with Texas and
Indiana, of course. So the the story is there from
having an in state battle, the state championship as as it's
called, which is kind of hilarious, but it it'll be a lot
of fun. I mean, this is 2 very good
teams and with Notre Dame just so much history through them.
Touchdown Jesus in the background.
No, I, I don't know who made it. Someone on X made the the
touchdown, Jesus, doing the IU logo, which or the IU, whatever
it is, the hand gestures, which is kind of funny.
I don't know it. This is going to be a fun one
again. I think it'll be low scoring.
That's that is my prediction. I think this weather is going to
be a big impact. It's so, so much pressure too.
Yeah. I think with.
Notre Dame, they do have a lot of pressure because of kind of
what I talked about earlier is Marcus Freeman and Notre Dame
have been trying to put themselves back into that kind
of they they've been good, but they they've made the play offs.
I think this is their third time now in the format might be 4th.
I'm not I'm I've done my math totally correct, but they've
gotten whooped. Yeah.
Well, and that's always been the interesting thing with Notre
Dame is that they have tended to struggle when they've gotten to
these opportunities. Now, they're normally playing,
you know, SC teams or teams with like, a tremendous amount of
talent. Indiana won't be that type of a
challenge. But where Indiana does bring a
really interesting challenge to Notre Dame is how efficient
Indiana has been when they've been at their best.
And, and on offense, combined with the fact that Indiana has a
legitimately very good defense, like one of the top defenses in
the country against the run and against the pass.
And that's only gotten stronger as the season's gone along.
And Indiana will have, you know, essentially 3 weeks to get
themselves healthy, to get themselves scouted.
Taylor Layman over at Bite Sized Bison put together a series of
preview of a previews looking at possible matchups in the
playoffs. And I want to go ahead and show
that here. I'm going to increase the size a
little bit for those of you watching on YouTube or Spotify
so you can see the numbers a little bit better.
But, you know, we talked about this a little bit in the show
that we did immediately after the draw.
And there's a couple things that stick out to me, Joe, that lead
me to wonder, you know, exactly like what gives in this game.
You mentioned the weather. I'm going to talk about that in
a minute. But you know, the the the things
that stick out to me overall are as follows.
First of all, Indiana's offense efficiency wise is, is among the
best in the country. Yes, they struggled against Ohio
State, and that's going to be a big question mark is how does
Indiana stop the Notre Dame pass rush?
Can Indiana give Curtis work time to throw the ball?
Can they establish the running game?
Can they have Justice Ellison and Tyson Lawton do what they
need to do while they're out there to to, you know, move the
chains, soften up the defense a little bit?
And, you know, how does Notre Dame decide that they're going
to attack Indiana? Surely, And this is where it's
like game theory to some degree. Surely they looked at what Ohio
State did and they're like, oh, we'll do that.
But they're also like, well, Indiana knows we're going to try
to do that, so we do something else.
Maybe this is where that chess match starts to take place.
And that is going to be a fascinating aspect within this
because, you know, ultimately we we've seen Indiana's offense at
their worst, but we've also seen them at their best.
And we've seen them at their best more than more recently
than we saw them at their worst. And that is going to be
something that'll be curious to watch as we watch Notre Dame
decide what they're going to do against Indiana's offense.
I think the one thing with Indiana's offense is with the
sample size that we have seen on the season, when they've played,
I, we'll, we'll call them top 25 defenses because I think
Michigan does fall into that category.
They put up 20 points and 15 points.
There's the sample size of playing those premier defense.
Notre Dame is a premier defense. This is a very good.
They have great, great secondary and a very good defensive front
that you know, should be able to alter the run game of the
Hoosiers, which has been very strong this year.
Justice Elson has had a tremendous year.
Tyson, the log has been a great secondary punch to that.
Yeah, there, there's a lot that goes into it and, and something
that we were told is they have been practicing a ton with
dealing with crowd noise. Yes, pretty much every practice
they've had, they've just been pumping it in, making it loud
because that was a huge, huge problem.
That was probably one of the more glaring issues at Ohio
State was once the Ohio State figured out the snap count,
figured out the silent count and Reel watched everything, it was
pretty much just a free rush on to Curtis Rourke.
Yeah. And if they are able to.
Adjust and have something a little more efficient then I I
think they'll be able to be more successful in the past game,
which is that's gonna be big is who can throw the ball.
It's a big. Challenge for, for Mike Shanahan
and, and for Tino Sinceri. Like how do you structure this?
And, and yes, you're gonna have to use the running game and you
should. If you look at the stats, you
can see that big purple number in, in Notre Dame's defense, and
that's success against the rush. There are 101st in the country
in success against the rush. That is where Indiana can have a
bit of an exploit if they can figure out how to move, you
know, 4 yards, 5 yards per rush. Like that's to me, like if they
can get to about a 4.34 point, 4 yards per rush carry.
I like Indiana's chances in this one because that will almost
certainly up open up the passing game.
But the other part of it is the, you know, one of the key
mistakes Indiana made in the Ohio State game and one of the
key mistakes, less of a mistake and more of a really good job by
Michigan, I think in the second-half of that game was
they didn't properly adapt to a short passing game, A game that
had, you know, where they were calling him hot reads out
immediately, where they were doing design screens, where they
were using the draw play. Like if you're gonna get that
level of pressure from an opposition defense, you have to
get them suckered in to chasing the ball where the ball isn't
anymore. And that's what those types of
plays do. And and that's how you get them
to back off of that pressure. And, and I agree, like the crowd
noise at Ohio State was was real bad.
And it really create a lot of problems.
They aren't going to have that level of crowd noise at Notre
Dame. It's not that loud of a stadium.
It's not that big of a stadium. Ohio Stadium states 110,030.
1070. 7000 that's 40,000 people less.
It's over. 80 I thought, no, it's. 77 was the last one I last
capacity listing I saw. Even if it's, yeah, that's
still. A big That's still a big
stadium, though. My point?
Is it's not nearly you take 35 to 47 people out of the mix that
makes a big difference. And the acoustics, like the the
Horseshoe is, is a much different acoustic environment
than Notre Dame's stadium, which reminds me a little bit more.
It's like a smaller version in terms of its geometry of what
you get at the big House, which that's a big bowl.
Yeah. So these are the kinds of things
where it's like, I'm glad they're practicing against the
crowd noise. I'm sure they're gonna have a
plan. My point is, I don't know that
it's going to be as big of a deal in this game, which should
aid in what Indiana wants to do in the passing game.
Now, flipping it around and looking at the defense versus
Notre Dame's offense, what's really fascinating to be about
Notre Dame's offense is it's so predicated on the run.
And you know, they've, they've certainly played very
efficiently as an offense overall, but when you break it
down in terms of efficiency per play, in terms of success rate,
you know, they they really aren't that good at the process,
you know, comparatively speaking to what Indiana's able to do on
their offensive side. And when you look at some of the
games that Notre Dame's played this year, a lot of their
overall offensive success has been racked up against teams
that are really pretty average to poor.
And Indiana's defense is not that.
And so I am really curious about the chess match there as I take
the the graphic off the screen in terms of what Indiana's going
to be able to do defensively to disrupt Notre Dame.
I think the idea that Notre Dame's just going to come in and
have their way with Indiana defensively because they had
their way with, you know, Boston College or Virginia, like those
are different types of teams. And Indiana, I think it's proven
even against good teams, even against the Ohio State's, you
know, and certainly against some of the other teams that had good
offenses that they are able to make stops.
And and that's not something Notre Dame's dealt with as much
so far this season. That's why.
I think this one will be more low square.
I think the teams will be able to get stops and I I will say
Indiana did a very good job both against Michigan and Ohio State
of punching early. They marched down the field on
their first drive after stopping Ohio State and put up a
touchdown and they were leading and everyone in the in, in in
the shoe was like what in the world is going on right now.
It was silent. The the noise was sucked out of
the building for a short amount of time.
But even the last drive that Indiana have they worked.
It was another just kind of long drive.
They kept it on the ground and we're able to put up some more
points on Ohio State. They have some good scripted
drive. So I'll be I think they'll be
able to get one or two touchdowns on Notre Dame, but I
also don't I I think Notre Dame will get one or two on Indiana
as well. I think this is going to be low
scoring. I think the like it'll be under
40 points total Like oh, I just I don't I.
Will bet you I I don't know what I'm allowed to bet you, Joe.
I'm going to. I'm 21.
So I guess it's like I, I. Will bet you a beverage of your
choice which you do not have to repay me that it will be
significantly above a a total of 40 in this OK.
Significantly above. So what do you say?
Like 60. I'll I, I, I would, I would
place the over under in this game at closer to 60 than I
would. So yeah, you can disagree and
you maybe when you look at. You what you look at teams like
this, they're good defenses and that's what it's going to be
highlighted by. I understand the scoring offense
is high. It's the highest.
Maybe I use 55? Points in this game?
Maybe that's the answer, Who knows.
But anyway, we, we wanted to, we wanted to check on the weather.
So here's what we've got. We've got the, the, the Weather
Underground 10 day forecast here.
I'm going to pop this up. It's, it's a little hard to see,
so let me try to zoom in a little bit.
But if we zoom in on Friday, what we've got for game day,
it's it peaks at about 33° with a 24° wind chill.
It could get pretty chilly by the time game time starts like
we're talking 21 degrees, 24 percent chance of precipitation,
which could turn to snow. I will note that is a week plus
out still, so I wouldn't bank on that too much.
But I will say if you're going to the game, dress warmly.
I will be I will be bringing I'll be bringing the big coat to
this one. And I was wearing it at the
Purdue game. It was the the fur lined one.
It was not as stylish as what Tricia Whitaker was wearing
where she had the the full ski jumpsuit, which I've heard might
be making an appearance at this game too.
So that you know, I'll just dress warmly.
Bring layers. You're gonna need it.
It is northern Indiana after all, the frozen tundra up there.
But anyway, let's wrap up talk about the game.
We got a lot more to talk about next week 1.
Interesting thing I will note, Notre Dame's special teams
underwhelming to say the least. They are 8 for 18 on field goals
this year. They have not had a great year
in terms of of punting the ball. I think they're 100th in S&P
Plus in terms of special teams. And while Indiana did have a bad
game in special teams at Ohio State, that was the exception.
I am going to be curious to see if special teams plays a role in
this game at all. Obviously Indiana's going to
have to be close for that to matter, but it's going to be
pretty fascinating if if Notre Dame doesn't score touchdowns,
can they reliably send their their field goal kicker in to
get the job done well? That that I love that you bring
that up. This is kind of that third level
of the game and what could be the most important part of the
game. I mean, I'd say the reason that
Ohio State Indiana game got so out of hand was because of the
special teams, the sequence of the dropped snap on the on the
punt and then the Caleb Downs punt return.
There, there it is right there in your face that this game is
no longer within reach. There could be a moment like
that. I don't know if it'll be a
block. I mean, D'Angelo Pons does have
a block Pon on the season there. There is the capability of that.
And then, you know, if they're in the, you know, the 40 to 50
yard field goal range, like that's where the misses could
happen. I mean maybe even I if inside of
40 yards. I understand college kickers are
college kickers in our I mean. Notre Dame has two kickers.
One of them is 6 for 12 on the season and he has a long of 45.
The other one who's kicked the other two field goals, his long
is 18 yards on the season. I'll also note that Notre Dame's
punter James Rendell averaging 41.95 yards per punt, which is
about 2 1/2 yards less than James Evans has averaged over
the course of the season, so maybe not as big of a
distinction. Field goals are going to be
interesting, so let's keep an eye on that.
Field goals will. Be interesting.
The thing with IU too is they haven't.
Nicholas Radicich had a great year.
I think he just one miss was it was Purdue and it was freezing
so the the ball probably felt like a rock to kick.
He also hasn't really taken a long field goal this season,
right? Yeah, his long.
His radish is long on the year. I gotta find it.
I don't actually see where it is here, but it's.
It's gonna be. Yeah, the whole thing's gonna be
fascinating. Yeah, it'll be.
Fun. It's it's gonna be a fun game.
I mean, you can look up and down the stats and that's what's so
fun about football is sometimes stats just go out the window and
chaos happens. And I think this could be a game
that a little bit, a little bit of shenanigans take place
because it's cold, because it's, you know, these two.
I understand it's not a rivalry, but I think it could be the
making of a rivalry because it's of any of the first round games,
this has the highest tension. It's an in state battle.
Yeah, no. I agree.
And and and I think it might be the biggest on paper toss up of
all of the options that are out there because.
I I do think that as well because I Clemson's not going
into Austin, TX and with a win, well, I disagree.
I think Clemson's going to win. I think Clemson's going to win
that game, But I don't think people are looking at that on
paper and saying that that's going to happen, whereas I do
think they're looking at Notre Dame IN and they're saying that
anyway. Well, before we wrap up, we need
to talk about some things that happened on on social media this
week. Emily, would you like to call
the Graphic Cup please? There we go.
We got schedule release. A schedule.
Release but this is what caught everybody's eye team McCann over
in the the Cuban center in the graphics department for IU
knocking it out here as Indiana that Joe, I don't know about
you. You're the expert in media here.
I'm just I'm just the host, but it looks like Indiana may have
soft launched the Bison on the schedule release and Joe's got
it. Let's let's get Joe back up on
screen. Can we get a?
We get a spot on we. All we all got the we all got
the verse going on right now. This is what I got.
Freshman year. You gave these out freshman year
or two years ago. I did.
I did, I, I, my, my whole idea was I was, I was operating as a
servant of, of a, a benefactor who has a very vested interest
in bringing the bison back. We haven't heard anything
official, but you can't ignore the imagery there.
I had so many people and I was touched by it.
Honestly it's I think out take some.
Credit with it well. Here's the thing, this year,
this year has been so weird for me as a podcast host cause I've
been podcasting about IU football since 2009 and a lot of
people didn't listen, understandably because people
weren't that interested. The success of IU, All the
credit goes to Kurt Signetti and his staff and the players and
the folks that work in the athletic department, all the
people that do the actual work to make it happen.
I have been touched. And you know, kind of I feel
awkward sometimes because the number of people who reach out
and say, I am so happy for you Galen, that IU football is doing
well. Like my brand has been tied to
the IU football brand, which would normally be not an ideal
thing, but man, it's been amazing this year.
But if my brand has been tied to IU football, my brand has also
been tied to the Bison since we obviously we're we're on Bison
chat now. That was an intentional choice
to name the show that I've I've been a believer in the Bison
thing for a long time and obviously no official
announcement from IU Athletics, but the fact that they put that
imagery in the schedule release and especially for those Rd.
games, that is really cool to see.
I was really pleased, not just with the number of people who
were like, are you going to do an emergency episode?
I'm not going to do 1 until we get an official announcement
about what this is going to look like, if indeed it happens.
But it is really heartening that so many people were excited
about the Bison potentially being part of the IU branding.
Joe, I mean, what's, what's your perspective?
I mean, obviously you're wearing the shirt.
I'm assuming you're in favor, but what did you think when you
saw that I? Mean you get a little excited,
you're like, oh, there might be a mascot like that that's just
fun and I think it just buys more into the culture that's
been instilled within athletics. This is a mascot that can run
around and hang out at Bill Armstrong Stadium for the soccer
games for for a little 500 that can, you know, run around the
court at Assembly Hall, go crazy.
Like, you know, it's a it's a full time gig right there.
That's like, sign me up, I guess.
Put me in a put me in a buys and cuss and let me run around.
I, I, if that was if there was like an audition, if there's an
audition process, like can I get my name in the hat?
Is that possible? But no, I, I think it's exciting
because like, I mean, you see with with the kind of the soft
launch, the Oregon IU game, the bison that's standing outside of
Austin Stadium, it's like, can we get a Puddles and bison like
fight in Eugene OR because because puddles, puddles is my
favorite mascot. I love puddles.
Puddles is unassailable. And I think, I think if you
pulled college football fans about who their favorite mascot
was, I'm assuming Puddles would win.
Like who would be who would be close to Puddles at this point?
I think that BYU Cougar is nuts. He does like some crazy things
like he got like launched from half court to the dunk had that
dance video and the the BYU Cougar is up there with just
kind of chaos and having a lot of fun.
I mean, big fan of of old Bevo that just giant Longhorn.
Yeah, that that that's that's an underrated.
I'm so upset that the SEC didn't let Texas bring a 2000 LB cow.
And yet, and yet the ACC allowed SMU to bring their pony with
them, which I you know, well, OK, the.
Pony's not as. That's that's cow.
I did like Donald Meyer's comment here.
The Army Rozzy program is called the Bison Battalion and has the
Bison on their unit patch. Lot of history with the Bison on
and off the field, you know, and I do get the occasion question,
like why the bison? And it's like, well, bison, this
used to be bison territory, like actual bison.
They had a territory that stretched almost over the entire
United States. They were senselessly and
thoughtlessly killed in in huge numbers.
It, it permanently altered not just the central United States,
but also the climate of the central United States.
And in many cases, you know, it's thought that it was led to
the Dust Bowl. They have reintroduced bison
into the wild here in Indiana slowly.
It's cool to it's a cool animal first and foremost.
And hold on a second. This is fascinating.
Tan is saying my high school, Benton Central, where the bison
Tan is. I didn't know you went to Benton
Central. I grew up 20 minutes down the
road. I, you know, I, I went to
Harrison and I've been to Benton Central many times for
basketball games and whatnot 'cause it was right up the road
to where I live. But yes, the Benton Central
bison absolutely remember them. It it is it is a neat if you
look at the state seal of Indiana, there's a bison on the
state seal. There's a ton of of good reasons
for this to happen and hopefully we get an official announcement
at some point from IU athletics and from IU in general that this
is happening. The back home network when we
launched it, we chose a bison as as the logo.
So we would love to have the entire branding kind of happen
within the mix. It's just a cool thing.
Joe and our sponsors Home Field apparel.
If you'd like some Bison apparel, they've got tons of it,
including what I'm wearing right now.
So go over to Home Field and check that out.
I'm sure that they would, you would appreciate being able to
wear some of that 'cause there are not a lot of other shirts
like what Joe has there. Those are kind of a limited run.
I like the. Sunglasses, that's that's cool.
I think if this mascot should have some some drip, have some
aura. I agree.
I think some drip is important in any walk of life.
Unquestionably. So anyway, Joe, we'll go ahead
and wrap things up here on Bison Chat today.
Any final thoughts from you before we do so not?
Really, I mean, it's, you know, it's dead week, off week,
whatever you want to call it, care week here at IU.
And I guess the madness really starts next week.
There are eight players talking on Tuesday because that is, I
think, a requirement by the College Football Playoff to have
at least eight players be available to the media.
So that'll be a lot of fun to hear a bunch of verbatim answers
for an hour. But you know.
These are, yeah, it's. Always, it's always good to talk
to the players. They're fun and and kind of pick
their brains. But you know, that's, that's
when it starts though, You know, that's, it's the countdown.
The countdown I guess starts now, but the countdown?
Begins and tomorrow is. Officially a week away.
Which wild? I know it's wild to think about.
We will be participating as much as we can here on Crimson Cast
to bring you content throughout the course of that count.
That will of course, have Taylor Layman back on to provide his
always insightful breakdown and preview of the match up.
We'll go really in depth with Taylor on that.
We're gonna have some special guests coming back throughout
the course of the week. We'll be at those live shows.
That's gonna be a lot of fun. So hopefully you all can stop by
Upstairs Pub Tuesday and we've got obviously the events up in
the South Bend area on Thursday and Friday.
So keep your eye on the Crimson Cast Twitter feed and we will be
back later on in the week with more content as we continue to
cover Indiana in the College Football Playoff for Joe Cronin
and for our producer Emily Fox. Thank you, Emily, a delightful
job as always. And thanks to all you folks who
watch live. Thanks to the many more of you
who are going to be watching or listening after the fact.
I'm Galen Clavio saying thanks for joining us here on Crimson
cast. We will catch you folks on the
flip flip side, until they make it official, I'm going to keep
saying bring back the Bison stay never daunted.
So everybody.